By Siobhan Kennedy
In a bid to get back on its feet, troubled enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor System Software Associates (SSA) yesterday outlined a new corporate strategy, a series of partnerships and the next version of its flagship manufacturing suite, BPCS. SSA hopes it strategy – focusing more on customer needs and offering software from third party vendors alongside its own products – will enable the company to turn itself round and get back in the black following a series of disastrous quarters that saw its revenues drop last month by 9%, to nearly $90m while losses hit $5.4m. This is a company relaunch, said Chris Lesar, senior director of product management, we’ve been through a lot over the last year, with organizational and financial restructuring. Now the last step is to get the new product out to market. Lesar said the SSA has spent the last year talking to its ninety-odd customers, having them tell us what they’re doing, what their needs are and what we should be thinking about. He said the main message SSA received was that its customers weren’t so much focused on ERP solutions per se, rather they were also concerned with managing the entire supply chain. ERP software, he said, enables companies to keep tight control of costs but they want to have control of revenue and profit calculations too, through the supply chain. They want to use ERP as the backbone but at the same time they were asking us how they could move into new channels.
Lesar said the latest version of its manufacturing suite, eBPCS, attempts to address these issues. SSA has included new technology, which its calls semantic message gateways, that enable the software to integrate with other third party applications. The first, announced yesterday is a partnership with i2 Technologies to integrate its Rhythm Factory advanced planning and scheduling adapter with eBPCS. SSA also said it is working with numerous other partners including; IBM, Cognos, Trilogy and Business Objects, to integrate their e-commerce and business intelligence functionality into eBPCS. It’s also entering a relationship with Lotus to develop integrations with Lotus Domino as well as a company called Ironsides to provide an e-commerce store front on BPCS for business to business and business to consumer commerce. Additionally, Lesar said the company is working to deliver datamarts that support specific vertical applications, the first being brand and category management. Whenever our customers tell us they need a particular solution we’ll go out and find the best of breed vendor in that area and work to integrate its products with our software, Lesar said, adding that the ultimate aim is to provide SSA customers with one single point of contact for their entire solution. It’s not just about our products, it’s about our partners’ products too, and it’s also about services, he said, they call me and I support the whole solution. I might have people behind that help me fix things but the customer only has to worry about one contact.
In order to deliver on its strategy, SSA has reorganized its service organization to focus on its four key target industrial markets: pharmaceuticals, automotive supply, consumer packaged goods and general manufacturing. In time, Lesar said SSA hopes to grow its services offerings as well as expanding into new vertical industries; the first one most probably being the attribute-based manufacturing industry i.e., the manufacturing of huge rolls of product, such as carpet, steel and paper. Historically, the sector has been largely ignored, Lesar said, but now the companies are starting to focus on their business systems, which represents a lucrative opportunity for ERP vendors. Bob Hoyt, VP of global accounts denied SSA was forming alliances because it couldn’t afford to deliver the solutions itself: We’ve had some financial difficulties, but that is not the driving force, he said, If there are already twenty people in the space with viable solutions, then why do we want to enter that space? B
ruce Richardson, VP research strategy with Boston- based AMR Research agreed forming makes sense for SSA: They would never be able to do a world class supply chain or front office application by themselves, he said, This is the first attack to preserve their huge installed base, it’s a very strong defensive measure….to reaffirm to users, hey, we’re still alive, we’re still investing in development and we’re serious about partnering. He added: But the second phase has to be new business, cause that’s the only way you’re going to grow. You can’t shrink to greatness, which Baan seems determined to do. eBPCS is available as of the end of March. Pricing begins at $2,500 – $5,000 (US) per user, but varies based upon products and the number of user seats purchased.
